Amazement
by pro-tearbender
Summary: She never ceases to amaze him. A drabble series loosely tied together with the theme of Kai being in awe of Jinora. Kainora. [Latest installment: Don't Let Me Go]
1. Much Ado About Dating

Title: Much Ado About Dating

Summary: She makes the first move.

Rating: K

Notes: The first of several Kainora drabbles written for my friend Natalie. Crossposted from tumblr. This drabble takes place in the near future of canon, with the specific timing up to your own discretion. Enjoy.

* * *

She asks Korra and Asami what to do, because even though she likes Kai a lot, she's still not sure where they stand.

"Well, when I was in your situation, your mom told me to just hang my chin out," Korra says, sitting up on the mountain of pillows left over from their pillow fight earlier. "You don't have to kiss a guy who's dating another girl like I did, but just go for it!"

She chews on her bookmark and looks at her, still unsure. "You think I should just…ask him?"

"Yeah, just do it!" Korra puts her hands on both of Jinora's shoulders and looks into her eyes. "Trust me, Kai won't know what hit him!"

"I agree with Korra," Asami says. She pats the finished pleat she just created in Ikki's hair and picks up three more strands to begin another one. "Sometimes boys just need a little push in the right direction."

"_Boys_," Ikki declares with an exasperated air, and Korra and Asami exchange glances before bursting into laughter.

Jinora sighs. "Seriously."

* * *

"I think we should date."

He splutters, and the table in front of him gets a thorough wash with lychee juice. While he sits there with juice dribbling down his chin, she reaches for a cloth and continues, deliberately avoiding his gaze.

"I mean, we kind of already are, or have been for a while now, maybe, but I think it would be nice for us to make it official, you know?" She moves her attention from the table to the corner of his mouth, where she wipes insistently with her towel. "I think it would be fun."

Her eyes flicker up to meet his, and all that occupies his mind is that she is smiling at him, so sweet and hopeful, that nothing else seems to matter. He smiles back.

"Yeah, fun," he echoes. _She is asking him to date her. Officially. In an official capacity. Dating. _"Fun."

He barely registers the kiss she presses to the top of his head or that she has to go train with Ikki but will see him later. He just sits at his table with his now empty cup of lychee juice, dazed, because he is dating Jinora and he feels so _good_. It doesn't occur to him until long after she has left the room that she has one-upped him in this regard - he has been practicing his line for ages - but he can't find it in him to care.


	2. At First Sight

Title: At First Sight

Summary: She is unforgettable in his eyes.

Rating: K

Notes: Takes place during episode 3x02 "Rebirth".

* * *

She is a small thing. Not scrawny like he is, with his lean and corded muscle stretched over a body just barely beginning to hint at manhood. She is just small, all lithe limb and gently sloping curves, thin wrists that flare into slim fingers, small feet that seem to float on top of every surface rather than rest.

He follows her slender form fluttering about on her glider, the oranges, yellows, and reds of her robes reminding him of how the autumn leaves dance on the wind. With her soaring arcs and easy turns with the breeze, she moves with an effortlessness that evades the performance even of her father, the Master Tenzin. She finishes with a flourish and waves happily from her precariously high perch atop the pole in the center of town, and he feels himself clapping along with the crowd.

Admittedly, he only joins their group because it fits his needs, but he makes a promise to himself to remember her. Her name is Jinora. She is eleven. She gives easy smiles and likes to read and she basically helps to save the world.

She is a small thing, but she exudes a cool sense of power and grace unlike anything he's seen, and even though he doesn't want to be, he is a little bit taken with her.


	3. Hands On

Title: Hands On

Summary: Practice makes perfect, they say. Maybe one day they can make…whatever they have perfect too.

Rating: K+ because bodily reactions

Notes: Written before the premiere of episode 3x07 "Original Airbenders", but I think it still fits into canon pretty well.

* * *

Jinora has been standing there for barely two minutes, but to him it certainly feels like much longer than that.

She looks especially pretty today, he notes. Maybe it's the way the light filters through the strands of her hair, highlighting brown with a striking gold, or the way her eyes are so focused and steady. He swells with both pride and a hint of anxiety that those eyes are not on the book pressed against her chest but on him.

Kai shakes his head, directing his thoughts away from her and back towards his bending. For the better part of the morning he's been working on it, and he is proud of the improvements he's made since studying under Master Tenzin at the Northern Air Temple, though he can't say he finds the man's teaching methods the easiest to understand. There is one move in particular that doesn't seem quite right, though, and he isn't sure why. If he wants to fix it, he needs to _concentrate._

He hears her approaching, and his pulse accelerates at her hand on his shoulder.

"May I?" she asks, and though he doesn't know quite what she's asking for, he assents.

And then she sets her book on the grass and is pressing up closely behind him, her arms framing his own, her fingers encircling his wrists, her right leg tucked into the inside of his thigh, god she is _everywhere,_ and he feels his mouth dry out.

So much for concentration.

"Sorry for getting so personal," she says. Her voice quivers for a moment, and he hopes that maybe in that moment she could be feeling the same way that she makes him. "Sometimes it's just easier to show the moves this way."

"That's okay," he breathes, the words barely making it off his lips that are suddenly very, very chapped.

Jinora is shifting behind him, readying herself for their little lesson, while he struggles to keep the rest of his bodily functions normal. He narrows his attention on his breathing, counting slowly in his head to offset the blooming rush of heat in his gut and restore his even pace. He knows, however, that there is no disguising the flush of his cheeks; the color runs a hot red across his face and down the back of his exposed neck, and he thinks he wants to die. Whether out of happiness of her proximity to him or the betrayal of his body in his obvious enamoredness for her, he doesn't know.

She nudges his legs apart a tad wider, shifts his right foot to a slight outward pivot with a gentle push of her foot. The press of her arms inwards on his own effectively tucks his elbows towards his torso.

"If you begin your stance like this, it should be easier to flow from one direction to the other," she says. "Then you just have to ease into it, slowly." Her breath ghosts across the shell of his ear, and Kai feels a jolt shoot from the top of his head to his toes. He stammers out an "o-oh", which he thinks is a tolerable response given the situation. "It's a subtle change, but I think it should be able to help you out."

She draws away and goes back to fetch her beloved book, and he feels an immense disappointment settle in his chest, but she asks him to do the move again with her corrections and he obeys. He is pleasantly surprised not only that he turns with a greater ease into his next position, just like she said he would, but also that his reach has increased by a few centimeters at no strain to himself. He does the move again and finds that it feels more relaxed, like each step in the series is propelling the next in a natural progression. That she could pick out flaws in his form and correct them in such a short amount of time was astounding.

"That was so good!" She beams. "You're doing a great job!"

"It was all thanks to you," he says, grinning in response. "You're a really great teacher, Jinora."

Her father's voice rings across the temple's grounds, calling her name, and he watches as she hurries away as quickly as she came. She tries to hide her cheeks with the covers of her novel, but there is no disguising the hints of redness peeking out from behind blue paper.

For the rest of the day Kai feels like he is floating, and he never again wants to touch the ground.


	4. Don't Let Me Go

Title: Don't Let Me Go

Summary: She looks every bit as wise, beautiful, powerful as he knows she is.

Rating: K+

Notes: Probably _the _defining one-shot of the series, in my opinion, the titular one-shot. Takes place in a not-so-distant future from current canon. There is some description of needles, so if that makes anyone uncomfortable, you have been warned.

* * *

What surprises Kai isn't that Jinora will be receiving her tattoos of mastery - with her extensive list of accolades and her affinity for the spirits beyond anyone has seen in generations, the traditional ceremony has long been overdue - but rather that Master Tenzin asks him to assist in the process. So, he responds with the only thing that makes sense at that moment.

"What?"

"Well, perhaps 'help' isn't the best word for it." Tenzin pauses in search of the best way to communicate his thoughts. "What I'm trying to say is that…I would like for you to be there." Tenzin puts his hand on his shoulder and kneels to look him in the eye, and Kai is struck by how much younger his master seems to be in this moment. Expert airbender and teacher he is, sometimes it is so easy for Kai to forget that the man is also a father of four youngsters. "I know that Jinora cares for you, and I believe that you being there will give her comfort."

He thinks of her, of the rosy blush that stains her cheeks when she is happy, of her bright smiles that she gives away freely, and it is easy to just say, "Okay."

* * *

It is a quiet affair. There is only the five of them with her in the room, the rest of her friends and family outside lighting incense, praying, and chanting mantras for well wishes. Jinora lies on her back on a central table, hands folded neatly on her stomach, as everyone around her prepares. Master Tenzin swirls the signature Air Nomad blue ink in a small cup as if to inspect the color and, when he is satisfied, dips a needle-tipped bamboo stick into it. Meelo and Ikki sit unusually still at either side of her, waiting to stretch Jinora's skin taut if necessary, and Pema keeps several towels in hand to wipe away blood and ink.

He sits as closely as he can to her without getting in the way, his hand slipped into hers, and he just gives her the most reassuring smile he can muster. When Master Tenzin finally begins, darting the stick like a pool cue forward into her skin, she squeezes his fingers tightly, and he promises her that, so long as he can help it, he will never let go.

* * *

There is nothing for him to do but watch. He watches Tenzin guide the bamboo stick with his thumb and middle finger across her body. He watches as the blue ink deposits bloom from shapeless masses into the ever familiar arrow tattoos. He watches her skin flare an angry red with each puncture, and he sees the little pockets of blood well up before Pema wipes them away. But mostly he watches her.

The procedure is an interesting stop and go, since there is a constant need to recoat the needles with ink, for Jinora to flip back and forth from her back to her stomach so they can create continuous sloping lines, and he wonders if she knows the range of her facial expressions during the process. Sometimes she is relatively relaxed, composed with the normal upturn of her lips save for the occasional clench of her jaw. It's at these times that she chats with him, and he makes small talk until they run out of things to say. Other times, especially if it is particularly painful, her eyes pinch shut and her lips curl into a frown, and he soothes her the best he can with a stroke of his thumb over her knuckles. And even in a few moments her face is impassive, like a blank slate, and he's not sure if it is from the monotony of it all or if she is just tired.

It is a slow process that takes three days to complete, but he is there for every available second. While Jinora's family follows the curve of her body, progressing from her scalp, down her spine, to her toes, he stays planted where he is, holding her hand, until the last possible moments. He is almost hesitant to let go, but her small smile lets him know that it's okay, it's only for a while, and when they resume in the morning or move on to another part of her body he's right back to where he was.

He grasps her hand even more tightly every time, and he sees the smile on her face grow even wider.

* * *

The ceremony closes with a sigh, in the literal sense. Master Tenzin breathes a gust of air across the tattoo ("for good luck and healing," Pema says), and then they are finished. Three days worth of sweat, tears, and crushed fingers, and it is finally over.

Jinora sits up to inspect her newly inked body, and he sees a wince flash across her face when she does so, but she insists on slowly, gingerly rotating her limbs so she can follow the trail of starkly contrasting blue against her pale skin.

"So how do I look?" she asks him with a cheeky grin, and he wants to tell her so many things. That she looks every bit as wise, beautiful, _powerful _as he knows she is. That he is so lucky to have someone like her in his life. That he is so proud of her. But he can't seem to find the words to convey all of those thoughts. He just lifts her hand to his lips and presses a gentle kiss to her palm, hoping that his next few words are enough.

"You never cease to amaze me."

She leans over and kisses him, their first. He thinks that means they are.


End file.
